There was plenty of rain around the region on the weekend and some more this week would be fine by Desiree Kearney.
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Kearney, who trains at Hawkesbury in a partnership with her husband Mitch, is headed west later this week with Dubbo Gold Cup contender Heza Gentleman.
Heza Gentleman earned automatic progression through to Sunday's $100,000 feature when winning the prelude event with Winona Costin in the saddle last month.
He followed that up with a strong victory at the Randwick Kensington Track when starting as a $10 chance.
"He showed a lot of fight to lead all the way at Randwick," Kearney told Racing NSW.
"The runner-up looked to have him at the 200 metres, but he went up another gear, pulled away and won well.
"He's a versatile horse and loves a wet track. He's OK on the dry but much prefers a rain-affected surface. Hopefully, there's a bit of rain about for Dubbo."
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Heza Gentleman is racing in career best form and has provided a real bright spot for the Kearney team.
The pair were forced to move their horses roughly six months ago when destructive floods hit Hawkesbury.
The horses have remained in a different Hawkesbury stable since, and the move seems to have worked wonders for Heza Gentleman.
The gelding had won just two of his 24 starts prior to the relocation but has scored two wins and four placings in his past eight starts.
The only question mark heading towards Sunday's feature is the distance.
The cup is run over 1600m and while Heza Gentleman has never won over that distance, he'd never won over 1550m prior to last start.
"I can't see the extra distance troubling him as he was very strong at Randwick," Kearney said.
"He'll be on or near the pace and has thrived since. I'll be surprised if he doesn't run another cracking race."
The Dubbo Gold Cup headlines will headline a meeting which offers $360,000 in prizemoney on Sunday.
Another cracking field is expected in the feature, with hometown trainers Kody Nestor and Clint Lundholm likely to be in the mix while Scone duo Brett Cavanough and Stephen Jones are expected to put forward Eiger and Hit The Target respectively.
Nominations for the meeting are released on Tuesday.